Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Meddlesome Democrats Want Federal Action On "Stand Your Ground" Laws

In theory, the police powers have traditionally been reserved for the states in our federal system of government. Police powers are those concerned with the health, safety, and welfare of the people. Intrusion by the Federal government into these areas which have been traditionally reserved to the states has grown over the last century. And now, a group of meddlesome Democrats want to intrude even more.

Yesterday, a letter was sent to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for the Justice Department to gather more data on justifiable homicides where the Stand Your Ground defense was invoked. This effort is led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) in the Senate and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) in the House. Other signatories include Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).

The group is also seeking data on other variables of such killings, including their location, information about who in the altercation was armed, the kind of weapons used and reasons they were justified.

“We believe this information would prove extremely useful in helping to evaluate the laws that govern the use of lethal force and in quantifying the impact of such laws on public safety and civil rights,” the lawmakers wrote to Holder...

The lawmakers are also asking the Justice Department to sponsor research through the National Institute of Justice related to trends in justifiable homicides and state-by-state analyses of the impacts of different variations of "stand your ground" laws.

Durbin, citing existing research, said the laws have led to increased violence.

The letter includes a request to order research by the National Institute of Justice into instances of "lethal force by individuals have been issued a concealed carry permit" and whether such use of lethal force resulted in any prosecutions. They also are demanding research into whether variations in concealed carry laws have a "statistically significant impact on the incidence and outcome of uses of lethal force."

In my opinion, this letter should be seen as not only an attack on self-defense laws but also on our Second Amendment rights. Given who is spearheading this attack, Dick Durbin and Elijah Cummings, you have to wonder if it is really about public safety and civil rights and not about midterm elections and energizing black voters. That, and protecting gangs such as the Black Guerrilla Family in Baltimore and the Latin Kings, Conservative Vice Lords, and Gangsters in Chicago.